1. Mary Marsha Blackburn is an American politician and businesswoman serving as the senior United States senator from Tennessee.
70 Facts About Marsha Blackburn
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Marsha Blackburn opposes abortion, same-sex marriage, and the Affordable Care Act.
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On November 6,2018, Marsha Blackburn became the first woman to be elected to the US Senate from Tennessee, defeating Democratic former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen.
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Marsha Blackburn became the state's senior senator in January 2021 upon the retirement of Senator Lamar Alexander.
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Marsha Blackburn won reelection to a second Senate term in 2024 against Democratic nominee Gloria Johnson.
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Marsha Blackburn has said she is considering running for governor of Tennessee in 2026.
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Marsha Blackburn Wedgeworth was born in Laurel, Mississippi, to Mary Jo and Hilman Wedgeworth, who worked in sales and management.
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Marsha Blackburn placed fourth during a beauty pageant in high school.
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Marsha Blackburn attended Mississippi State University on a 4-H scholarship, earning a Bachelor of Science in home economics in 1974.
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Marsha Blackburn was elected both as secretary and president of the Associated Women Students at Mississippi State University.
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In 1973, before graduating from college, Marsha Blackburn worked as a sales manager for the Times Mirror Company.
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Marsha Blackburn was a founding member of the Williamson County Young Republicans.
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Marsha Blackburn was chair of the Williamson County Republican Party from 1989 to 1991.
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In 1995, Marsha Blackburn was appointed executive director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment, and Music Commission by Tennessee governor Don Sundquist, holding that post through 1997.
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Marsha Blackburn was a member of the Tennessee Senate from 1999 to 2003, and rose to be minority whip.
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In 2002, Marsha Blackburn ran in the Republican primary for this congressional seat.
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Marsha Blackburn was the fourth woman elected to Congress from Tennessee, and the first woman elected to Congress from Tennessee who did not succeed her husband.
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Marsha Blackburn served in the US House of Representatives from 2003 to 2019.
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In November 2007, Marsha Blackburn unsuccessfully ran for Republican conference chair.
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Marsha Blackburn was a senior advisor on Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign, before resigning her position in the Romney campaign and endorsing Fred Thompson for president.
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Marsha Blackburn was an assistant whip in Congress from 2003 to 2005, as well as deputy whip from 2005.
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In October 2017, Marsha Blackburn announced her candidacy for the Senate seat being vacated by Bob Corker.
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Marsha Blackburn carried all but three counties in the state, the most counties ever won in an open Senate election in Tennessee.
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Marsha Blackburn carried all but two counties in the state.
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Marsha Blackburn was sworn in as a US senator on January 3,2019.
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Marsha Blackburn is the first woman in history to represent Tennessee in the US Senate.
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Marsha Blackburn has been called staunchly conservative, and has sometimes attended functions of, and met with leaders of, far-right groups.
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GovTrack estimated Marsha Blackburn to be the most ideologically conservative member of the Senate in the 2019 legislative year.
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In 2024, Marsha Blackburn served as chairperson for the Republican National Committee's official party platform.
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Marsha Blackburn replaced the bill's prior sponsor, US Representative Trent Franks, after Franks made controversial and dubious statements.
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In 2015, Marsha Blackburn led a panel that investigated the Planned Parenthood undercover video controversy, in which anti-abortion activists published a video purporting to show that Planned Parenthood illicitly sold fetal tissue.
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Subsequent investigations into Planned Parenthood found no evidence of fetal tissue sales or of wrongdoing, but in 2017, when Marsha Blackburn announced that she was running for Senate, she ran a controversial advertisement saying that she "fought Planned Parenthood and we stopped the sale of baby body parts".
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In March 2016, Marsha Blackburn chaired the Republican-led Select Investigative Panel, a committee convened to "explore the ethical implications of using fetal tissue in biomedical research".
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In 2009, Marsha Blackburn sponsored legislation requiring presidential candidates to show their birth certificates.
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Marsha Blackburn's spokesperson said that Blackburn did not doubt that Obama was an American citizen.
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Marsha Blackburn's delegation was the third such delegation to visit Taiwan following Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit early that month.
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In July 2023, Marsha Blackburn criticized the movie Barbie for "bending to Beijing to make a quick buck" after it was alleged the film contained a map of the world displaying the nine-dash line, a territorial claim by China to the South China Sea that the international community rejects.
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In 2024, Marsha Blackburn was targeted by the Chinese government's Spamouflage influence operation.
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In March 2022, Blackburn called Griswold v Connecticut, a landmark Supreme Court decision holding that the Constitution protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction, "constitutionally unsound" as a ruling that "gave the court permission to bypass our system of checks and balances".
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In November 2016, Marsha Blackburn joined Trump's presidential transition team as vice chair.
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Marsha Blackburn was a staunch supporter of his and backed most of his policies and proposals.
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Marsha Blackburn nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations with North Korea.
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Marsha Blackburn garnered attention by reading a book during the proceedings.
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Marsha Blackburn spent time during the trial to tweet about Alexander Vindman, calling him unpatriotic for allegedly "badmouth[ing] and ridicul[ing]" the US in front of Russia.
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In May 2021, Marsha Blackburn abstained from voting on the creation of the January 6 commission.
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In 2021, when President Biden proposed universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds and subsidized child care for low- and middle-income families, Marsha Blackburn likened the proposal to the communist policies of the Soviet Union.
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Marsha Blackburn falsely claimed that the Biden administration proposed to put children in pre-K even if their parents did not want to send them there.
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Marsha Blackburn was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which raised the US debt ceiling.
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In March 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized Marsha Blackburn for accepting over $1 million in campaign donations from the National Rifle Association of America and voting against gun control measures, including the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which passed in 2022.
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At October 2013 congressional hearings on the ACA, Marsha Blackburn said the website healthcare.
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Marsha Blackburn said her bill had "unintended consequences", but Rannazzisi said they should have been anticipated.
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Marsha Blackburn said that during a July 2014 conference call he told congressional staffers the bill would cause more difficulties for the DEA if it pursued corporations that were illegally distributing such drugs.
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In March 2021, Marsha Blackburn visited the southern border of the United States with several other Republican senators; she accused President Biden of encouraging a surge of illegal immigration.
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Marsha Blackburn opposes same-sex marriage and in 2004 and 2006 voted for proposed constitutional amendments to ban it.
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Marsha Blackburn voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to ban discrimination against LGBT employees.
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On October 26,2020, Marsha Blackburn voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States.
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Marsha Blackburn wore a mask that read "Grin and Barrett" to the Senate vote.
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On March 22,2022, during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Marsha Blackburn asked Jackson to define the word "woman".
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Marsha Blackburn has advocated increased regulation of technology companies and criticized alleged anti-conservative bias on major platforms.
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Marsha Blackburn worked with Blumenthal to introduce children's online child safety legislation, known as the Kids Online Safety Act.
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Marsha Blackburn opposes net neutrality in the United States, calling it "socialistic".
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Marsha Blackburn opposes municipal broadband initiatives that aim to compete with Internet service providers.
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Marsha Blackburn supported bills that restrict municipalities from creating their own broadband networks, and wrote a bill to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from preempting state laws that blocked municipal broadband.
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In 2017, Marsha Blackburn introduced to the House a measure to dismantle an Obama-administration online privacy rule that the FCC adopted in October 2016.
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Marsha Blackburn subsequently proposed legislation that expanded the requirement to include internet companies as well as broadband providers.
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In 2009, Marsha Blackburn voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.
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Marsha Blackburn is a Presbyterian and a member of Christ Presbyterian Church.
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Marsha Blackburn is a member of The C Street Family, a prayer group that includes members of Congress.
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Marsha Blackburn is a former member of the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board.
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Marsha Blackburn is the author of The Mind of a Conservative Woman: Seeking the Best for Family and Country.